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Battle of Dyre Den
'''The Battle of Dyre Den '''was a major battle in the War of the Five Kings. It was the first armed engagement between the forces loyal to Joffrey Baratheon; namely Houses Lannister and Tyrell, and the Bloodborn forces of the Tiger Islands, loyal to House Rylen. The battle took place on a large stretch of beach near the Dyre Den, the seat of House Brune of the Dyre Den. This marked the beginning of the Bloodborn Invasion of the Crownlands and the official entry of House Rylen into the War of the Five Kings as allies to House Stark. Prelude After the Battle of the Blackwater, House Stark was faced with overwhelming odds in the War of the Five Kings now that House Tyrell had joined the war on the side of Joffrey Baratheon, and with Stannis Baratheon effectively knocked out of the fight (for that moment at least) the two incredibly powerful houses were free to focus all their efforts on Robb Stark and his armies in the Riverlands and Westerlands. The situation was only made worse for the Starks when it was revealed that Theon Greyjoy had betrayed his friend Robb and captured Winterfell as part of a larger Ironborn invasion of the North. Now heavily outnumbered, Robb appealed to King Tandis Rylen for aid, since the Rylens were long-time allies of the Starks, and also commanded the largest fleet in the Seven Kingdoms. Tandis had been reluctant to join in what he viewed as a "mainlander war", since the Tiger Islands had long been independent of the Iron Throne and he felt it was not his place to become involved in what was essentially a civil war between the mainland houses of Westeros. Fortunately, Tandis was convinced by his bannermen that war against the Iron Throne was the proper course, on the principle that Joffrey Baratheon was not the legitimate heir and that the Rylens were honour-bound to maintain their alliance with the Starks. And so, leaving his recently legitimised half-sister Madalyn Rylen and his cousin Jayde Rylen in command of the Tiger Islands themselves, Tandis called the banners of the Bloodborn and sailed with three quarters of his overall forces to invade the Crownlands. Knowing that he couldn't attack King's Landing directly due to the massive influx of Tyrell reinforcements, Tandis chose to land his forces in Crackclaw Point in order to draw attention from Robb and allow himself the opportunity to wear down the Iron Throne alliance through attrition. He chose to land his forces near the small castle of the Dyre Den, seat of House Brune. Tywin Lannister, the overall commander of House Lannister's forces, received several reports that the Red Fleet was sailing along the coast towards the Crownlands and so dispatched a force under Lords Gavin Lannister and Jacen Tyrell to intercept the Bloodborn Army. The Battle The vanguard of the Bloodborn Army began their landing, led by Benjen "Ben" Rylen and his father Brent, with orders to be on the watch for any enemy forces who may try and disrupt the Bloodborn disembarkation, surely enough, as more and more troops came ashore, a scout came to Lord Brent informing him that he'd spotted thousands of Lannisters and Tyrells approaching on horseback. Sweeping over the sandy hills, Lord Gavin sent in the Lannister cavalry from the east while Lord Jacen attacked with the Reach cavalry from the west while the infantry of both houses took position on a hill directly in front of the Bloodborn landing zone. The Rylen troops formed up into organised spearwalls to counter the enemy cavalry charges, managing to soften the blow of their attack, however the Lannister/Tyrell cavalry was still able to inflict decent casualties on the Bloodborn attackers even as they were being cut down in droves themselves. It was here that the tactical abilities of the two sides became evident, as Lords Gavin and Jacen then chose to send in their entire dismounted force simply to attack the comparitively small force of Bloodborn along the small stretch of beach whilst completely ignoring the massive fleet at their backs. Continuing to reinforce the vanguard, Tandis ordered his fleet to divide in two, and started landing troops on either side of the Iron Throne force, these reinforcements were easily able to surround and cut down thousands of Lannister and Tyrell troops, many of whom finally surrendered, while the vast majority of the Iron Throne army fled to the south through an avenue that Tandis had purposely created. Lord Gavin and Lord Jacen fled the field when they realised the battle was lost and returned to King's Landing in shame, there to face the wrath of Gavin's distant cousin Tywin. Aftermath It is estimated that the Iron Throne forces suffered about 5,000 troops killed, close to 10,000 wounded and only a few dozen captured. The Bloodborn Army in comparison suffered just over 1,000 dead, nearly 6,000 wounded and no men captured. Having secured their landing site, the Rylens were able to establish their army ashore with no further interruption. After capturing the Dyre Den with almost no resistance, Tandis had already secured a base of operations from which to conduct his campaign, a strong morale victory for his forces and his Northern allies, and reminded the Iron Throne once again that House Rylen was a force to be reckoned with.